This past summer I led a mission trip to Peredo, Haiti with Haitian Christian Outreach. While VBS was going on, Cameron and I were going to look at a house that was built for Leston, an elder in the congregation she attends. When approaching his house, we walked beside a shack, in fact under the beams you see in the picture below...

After praying with Leston and his wife, and thanking God for his new house, we began to question what the shack was being used for. We found out that it was not a shack, but a house. Gerta and her six children live here. We found out that her husband died two years ago, leaving her with no income and six small children to care for. My heart was immediately burdened, and this scripture came to mind:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look afterorphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

I said a quick prayer to God, and decided that we must help. After talking to Cameron and RoRo, we came up with a time frame and dollar amount to make this happen for Gerta and her children...

The next day, I was fortunate enough to meet Gerta again, and all her kids. They had been coming to VBS, but there were so many people and kids there, that I had previously missed them. As you can see in the picture above, she has not been overcome by her circumstances. Gerta rests in the promises of God, and trusts in him completely to meet her needs...

As the hands and feet of Jesus, we must help. We are obligated to live out our faith in real and tangible ways, helping others in the community of believers who are in desperate need:

"But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brothers in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?" I John 3:17

You can use the link below to make a donation to help Gerta and her children have a house they can make their new home.